


The Soldier in White

by Batdad (MizGoat)



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: A lot of cursing, Angst, M/M, Memory Loss, some mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 14:58:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13883274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizGoat/pseuds/Batdad
Summary: Yoss didn't realize that getting demoted could end up being a good deal for him. If only he knew what to do about the ghost.





	The Soldier in White

**Author's Note:**

> Shepard and the Speck belong to the wonderful [DivineValley](http://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineValley/pseuds/DivineValley)
> 
> The title and Yoss's name are both borrowed from Catch-22. (Hey if Commando Cody is good enough for Lucas...)

“All the way back down to trooper, Yoss? That’s a hell of a demotion.” Steady’s voice came with a warm gust of air over Yoss’s ear. The were still sweaty from the sex they had just had and Steady was half draped over Yoss like a heavy blanket. He’d come here looking for safety after the mess that the afternoon had turned into, but he’d realized he had to tell Steady what had happened. Steady deserved to know.

“I think it was the ‘attempted desertion’ that they really nailed me for. As if I would have been sitting around waiting to be found if I really decided to desert. I just needed to clear my head a little, that’s all. The new guys on my team are a real piece of work. Well. I guess it’s not  _my_ team anymore.” Yoss stared at the ceiling. Didn’t matter. They had cleaned out Duncan’s stuff. Like they were entitled to his space. He had railed at them, and they had just shrugged.

“Going AWOL is still pretty bad. And it’s not the first offense on your record either,” Steady sounded tired.

“Fuck that. They knew where I was. I didn’t hide it. And it wasn’t like I ducked out on a mission or anything.”

“I still think you got lucky. A demotion and a transfer is small change for a charge that could have gotten you,” Yoss cut Steady off before he could finish.

“I know that. You think I don’t know that? Fuck you. I know that better than you do.” He had started to shake.

“Don’t. Yoss, I’m not trying to start a fight.” Steady was unerringly reasonable. It was his worst quality. But he had a point. Steady was just about the only friend Yoss had that wasn’t dead. He didn’t really want to spend their last evening together fighting.

“Where are they sending you?” 

“Relay Station Epsilon, wherever the fuck that is.” Yoss didn’t object to being sent to the far side of the galaxy on principle, but he wasn’t entirely keen on being sent into any situation blind. He’d been an officer too long, and had gotten too used to having that tiny measure of control.

Steady was shaking, he realized somewhat belatedly. And then Steady started to laugh.

“The hell is so funny?”

“You’ll be fine Yoss. That’s where I have my mistress stashed, remember?”

* * *

There was a ghost waiting for him at the end of the shuttle ramp when he arrived. The ghost introduced himself as Shepard, and apparently the ghost was head of security here. 

They called it The Speck. The sergeant that Yoss had run into on Coruscant, and accused of being Steady’s mistress, was in charge. He was overly friendly which Yoss distrusted, but Steady slept with him, which probably meant he wasn’t a murderous gloryhound. Steady’s taste was usually better than that. But then if he had been, The Speck would never have been a good command post for him. Yoss wasn’t entirely sure that The Separatists even knew this place existed. There seemed to be a real chance that Yoss could finish out a rotation here without ever getting shot at once.

Most of the other crew here were moronic osik stains that seemed to think it was a punishment for no one to be trying to kill them. There were a few who seemed to get that The Speck was magnificent, but most of them had injuries that kept them out of the fight, and Yoss suspected that if it weren’t for that, they’d be happily out letting droids attempt to murder them.

And then there was the ghost. Duncan’s ghost. He moved through the station with purpose, and did his job without complaint. The two men who worked under him liked him, and so did Yoss. There was nothing about him to dislike. He was Duncan, only the Kaminoans had scrubbed out the inside of his head with steel wool and left behind the ghost named Shepard. A little bland, a little quiet, not Duncan, but not  _ not _ Duncan either.

Sometimes Yoss was sure the ghost was about to remember him, and it terrified him.

He’d replayed their last conversation to himself a million times since Duncan had been disappeared. Duncan confessing his love and Yoss having no idea what that really meant. He hadn’t understood exactly what his feelings were. Still didn’t now. Duncan had been his best, his closest. He didn’t know if he loved him, but he could have, he thought. Most of the time he wished he had said that he did. Even if he hadn’t been sure. It would have been better for Duncan that way, he thought.

* * *

“He sounds like a droid.” It was one of the osik stains trying to talk big.

“I beg your pardon,” Yoss asked him.

“Yeah, like a droid. All freaky and level. Like he doesn’t have feelings.” the osik stain continued, waving his hand for emphasis.

“Oh well. That’s funny, because I wasn’t aware that combat veterans who can competently do their job owed sounding all warm and friendly to shiney little nerf herding idiots who got put on punishment detail after they fubar their only mission on sentry duty in an non-combat zone. Do you need codeling because the moron longneck who uncorked you took you out of the bottle half baked? I mean not that I expect anything better from the 714th,”

And that was as far as Yoss got before the osik stain jumped over the table and started punching him in the head. He got in two solid hits before someone pulled him away. Yoss didn’t even try to fight back. He just sat in his chair and took it. When he finally got some air back into his lungs, osik stain was being hauled away.

“COWARD!” he yelled after him with specks of blood and spit flung from his mouth. Then he laughed a little before his swelling jaw made it too painful.

* * *

Yoss woke up in medical with the ghost sitting next to his bed. Painkillers must have made him nod off.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” the ghost told him.

“Done what? Get hit?” Yoss’s words were a little slurred by his fat lip.

“Defended me like that. I know I’m odd. I,” the ghost looked at his hands and frowned.

“Yeah, well fuck that. And fuck you for saying it. Little osik stain will have earned whatever’s coming to him.”

The ghost looked at him like he might remember again, but he didn’t say anything. Maybe when the Kaminoans had done their scrubbing, there were a few stuck on bits they didn’t quite manage to scrape up.

* * *

After the fight they moved him into the barracks room used by the security team. It was quieter there.

The first night he wanted to crawl into the ghost’s bunk and sleep there, but he knew he couldn’t. How could he have even asked.

He wished he had told Duncan he loved him. It would have been true enough.


End file.
